


(have you seen) the muffin man

by c_doves



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Awkward Crush, Everybody Lives, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Matt Murdock Needs a Hug, Meet-Cute, Timeline What Timeline, Trans Character, but its not a major plot point, more like a regular part of life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 08:53:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17118233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c_doves/pseuds/c_doves
Summary: After rescuing a baker and catching the scent of some absolutely delicious baked goods, Matt has to find the place that sells them.





	(have you seen) the muffin man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kotaka_kun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kotaka_kun/gifts).



> I lovelovelove planning fics. I tend to forget that I'm less skilled at writing interactions though. This is a meet-cute AU where Foggy owns a bakery and Matt, initially finding it for some stellar baked goods, starts going to see Foggy instead. 
> 
> I actually got carried away and planned a whole plot with a white supremacist gang for Daredevil to go up against/rescue Foggy from/bond with Nadeem over as Matt until Nadeem gave Matt the shovel talk, for Claire and Foggy to meet and share stories, for Brett to threaten Daredevil for involving Foggy... and a whole lot of other stuff that would take a whole lot more time to write decently. I've hinted at that plot in this fic, but couldn't successfully write it to save my life. I decided instead to focus on Matt and Foggy being their adorable selves, and came up with this cute fic I'm pleased with. 
> 
> Maybe one day I'll manage to write that other fic, but I wanted this to be fluffy and after a few attempts, this is the fic I'm happy with to post as fluff before Christmas.

The first time Matt meets the guy, he drops down behind the criminal that just threw the first punch. It’s clear that despite whoever he pissed off, this guy wouldn’t know how to fight his way out of a paper bag, he’s just standing there holding his cheek and looking shocked as Matt takes out the other attacker. The guy had been trying to talk sense into these guys, which - even ignoring the fact that they’re clearly just the muscle - its not something he’s used to civilians doing.

Matt’s buried the suit, has his black outfit back to help him stay anonymous. The black scarf does almost nothing to hinder his senses, and Matt can smell the most amazing baking smell, high quality ingredients, vanilla, butter, flour that hasn’t been bleached within an inch of its life. There’s also something he doesn’t think he recognises, and Matt just has to know where this guy had been

“You might want to call the cops” Matt points out, bringing the man’s attention back to the present.

“Call the… I think they need an ambulance first. They are still alive, right?”

Is this guy serious? “You’d rather I’d left them to finish their business?” Matt retorts, because he’s not above feeling a bit petty. “I mean, I’m sure they’d give you a few more colors to complement that lovely bruise you’re going to have. I just figure most people have more self-preservation than that.”

“No, I… Thanks” the guy says hesitantly. “I’ll ring 911, they weren’t going to listen. It’s just,” the man lets out a sigh and shrugs. Matt senses him looking the Daredevil outfit over, and takes a step back.  

The bottom rung of a fire escape is not far behind him and he’s torn between asking after the source of the baked-goods smell and leaving. But he doesn’t need to give anything about his enhanced senses away, so he takes a couple more steps back and leaps up to grab the fire escape in a backwards swing. And if he uses the momentum of that movement to flip himself up and around onto the next landing, well there’s nothing wrong with helping Daredevil’s reputation now, is there?

 

 

 

When he finally tracks down the bakery, Matt shouldn’t be surprised at the little bell over the door, its just that kind of quaint little cosy environment. Its a Saturday morning and Matt has been meandering around looking for this place before his meeting with a witness.

Matt can hear the soft crackle of a fire, can almost taste the citrus wafting up from what is presumably a little sample plate on the counter.  
  
”Hello?” he calls out, though he can already hear the rustle of hands being dried on a tea-towel.

Footsteps head towards him, and Matt shoots a friendly grin in their direction. Its not the same man as the previous evening, this man moves with the gentle grace of someone trained. Whether that’s in fighting or dancing, Matt would need more time to identify the difference.

“Hi there, what can I get for you?” the man asks, and gives no hint of hesitancy when Matt holds up his cane and asks what’s on offer, instead listing off some of the rolls and pastries behind the counter

“Actually, do you have anything for a bit of a sweet craving?” Matt interjects after a the man lists a couple of croissants and muffins. Everything smells like heaven, but the smell he didn’t recognise is wrapped up with sugar crystals, fresh cream and a few other things. Definitely not a regular breakfast food but Matt can smell the scent coming from a shelf behind the man anyway. “Maybe some tarts or cheesecake?” Matt guesses.

“Sure, the guy replies amiably, “did you want a sampler box, we have a special on those at the moment and you get to try all the favorites?”

“That’d be great, thanks. Have you been here long?” Matt starts, making small talk while his goods are added to a box.

“Only a couple of months,” is the reply, “we’re really just starting to take off, now. In fact, you should have seen us the first week, Foggy would bake so much and then before we’d gotten regular customers he’d end up giving half of it away for free. When it didn’t sell, I mean.” Matt could hear the man’s grin in his voice and it sounded like the comment was a repeated piece of friendly teasing.

“Here you go, the box is a foot in front of you on the counter,” the man continued, “I’ve included a second box for free, stacked on top. If you could share it with your office, it’ll help us get our name out there.”

“Now who’s giving away free baked goods?” Matt joked easily back. Reaching for the boxes, Matt makes a show of hesitating “Do you have a bag? It’s just,” he raises his cane and briefcase indicating his lack of hands. “I’ll be sure to share these around with the weekend crowd though, thanks,” he adds, hoping there are enough people in the office to make it worth the man’s efforts.

 

 

 

The treats - and apparently the bakery is called The Muffin Men of all things; the logo running across each box and on the napkins too - are popular, even more so than free food normally is, and Matt can’t blame them. He has to stop by a few of the neighbouring offices and share them since there’s no communal kitchen on their floor, but it never hurts to build some positive relationships with the businesses around him.

He identifies the new scent coming from a mini cheesecake and takes a bite, after setting down the remaining box on Karen’s desk. Its not as sweet as he’d anticipated, but still more than most savory-style cheesecakes. There’s a hint of tang, gentler and more complex than citrus, but he can’t related it to anything else, either. There’s no fillers, dyes or preservatives - other than the sugar and butter of course - and Matt’s pleasantly surprised at the almost home-cooked style of the bakery. He still hasn’t figured out what the mystery ingredient might be but he’s guessing its a herb of some kind, the flavor noticeable despite its oddity. The rest of the ingredients balancing the flavors perfectly.

It is, simply, divine.

 

 

The second time Matt visits the bakery, the man that had been trying to talk down some criminals is behind the counter. It’s a Wednesday afternoon and looking to be a long evening for him as Daredevil. The latest gang to corner off some turf in Hells Kitchen has been making waves, intimidating local businesses into buying ‘protection’ and trying to scare off some of the locals they don’t agree with.

Which, this is Hells Kitchen, one of the most diverse areas in all of New York City, and a bunch of white supremacists decided to set up here of all places? He doesn’t like their chances - or their life choices of course - but Hells Kitchen is so diverse that he’s not even sure where this is coming from.

Well he knows where the gang members are from; Hydra’s unmasking and the uploading of secret government files to help cut off Hydra’s fingers in a few dozen positions of authority in his city alone. As the media and law enforcement raced to process the terrabytes of data for relevant information, more than a few low level hydra grunts were simply fired from their jobs or turned away by landlords. As racist as Americans could be, actual Nazis were still a bit more extreme than the average Joe would turn a blind eye to.

Matt’s weariness must show on his face, the man greets him gently and offers one of the samplers before he’s even had a chance to order. Matt accepts it gratefully with a self-depreciating grin.

“I’m actually after something specific, but I didn’t get its name,” he starts. “It was almost… citrus? But sweeter and more delicate?”

“Oooh. It sounds like you’re going to be a regular. I’m Foggy by the way,” the man smiles easily in return, “and I think you’re talking about our lemon myrtle cheesecake, so good choice there.”

“lemon and myrtle? That’s a different combination,” Matt hedges.

“Oh, its not a combination” Foggy shakes his head, then Matt senses the blush as once again, heat floods his cheeks. “uh, I shook my head. Sorry.” Matt waves his apology away politely, and Foggy continues. “We have a series of international flavors, lemon myrtle is an Australian herb, its been so popular, I’m surprised its not more well known.”

Matt raises his eyebrow, “Are you allowed to be giving out the company secrets? There’s generally rules against that in employee contracts, you know.”

Foggy shrugs “I’d like to see anyone else make them as well as I do” Foggy , I’m not worried”.  
  


 

 

“Someone woke up on the right side of the bed for once,” Claire greets him. “You don’t look injured,” she adds, looking him over critically, “though I know better than to put too much stock in that.”

“Just a social call actually,” Matt smiles, holding up the bag of baked goods. “I wanted to drop round a thank you gift. I’ve found a new bakery, and their stuff is delicious”. He feels a bit ridiculous creeping around in his black Daredevil getup, mask pulled down and carrying a grocery bag. Like a vigilante who got sent on a milk run, he thinks to himself. But he wanted to drop this off before he started his patrol, and it was easier to change first and just continue on.

Claire makes a disbelieving noise at his comment, though she opens up the bag. “Oh, you mean Foggy and Nadeem? The Muffin Men. They donate their excess stock to the soup kitchen I help at.” Claire’s smile is genuine this time, without the usual sarcasm his misadventures usually receive. It morphs into a frown pretty quickly though, “this isn’t warming me up to broken ribs or something, is it?”

Matt barks out a laugh in response, shaking his head. “I’m not __that__ bad.”

Most of the time, anyway.

“No concussion you're hiding from me? You aren't buttering me up for some more Plan B? Which I shoudn't even have, you know.”

“That was one time” Matt defends, embarrassed. The hormone injections make a pregnancy extremely unlikely, but he is very much __not__ okay with taking that risk.  
  
”Wait,” he starts getting back on track about Foggy, “they have enough left to donate? How does the business even make money?” Matt frowns, “They seem to make a habit of giving away food, I’m not sure their boss wouldn’t notice.” Foggy is so __wholesome__ and Matt doesn’t like the idea that he could lose his job by being too nice.

“Foggy __is__ the boss, so I think they’re safe on that front,” Claire mutters, picking a sultana off her treat and throwing it at his face. Matt catches it in his mouth instead, grinning.

“Oh? He must be new to running a business then.” Matt smirks and plucks a tart out of the bag. There’s half a dozen different treats so he’s not worried.

“His cakes and pastries are just that good.”Claire counters, “he ran a bakery over in Midtown for a few years, he’s just expanding and getting his name out there.”

“To a soup kitchen?” Matt puts in dubiously.

“No, idiot, that’s just his bleeding heart. I mean the rest of it.”

Matt doesn’t know how to respond to that.

 

A few weeks and a whole lot of visits later, Matt’s bakery run has become part of his routine. Having some amazing, baked treats available at their office had warmed up several clients, who became more comfortable and in turn, forthcoming with information. Or at least, that’s the reasoning he tells himself. It doesn’t have anything to do with the positively adorable baker who’s roped him in to taste-testing increasingly extravagant creations.

Foggy regularly joins him at one of the few tables in the - admittedly cramped - bakery and they’re surprised by how much they have in common, two Hells Kitchen boys through and through. Matt has built a life for himself that’s purely professional, lawyer by day, vigilante at night. Friendships hadn’t seemed important enough to allow time away from his duty to his city. There’s Karen, his first client turned coworker, but they both tend to hold the world at arms length and while they work __amazingly__ as a team, they haven’t tried to bond outside of work.

Foggy is just so earnest and friendly, he’s thrown a wrench in Matt’s plans with his smiles and banter.

So of course, later that month when Matt stumbles out of the chilly morning air into the bakery’s warmth, teeth chattering against the cold, Foggy immediately notices.

“Ouch, you look like a popsicle right now. Have you forgotten winter is a thing?”

“Yeah, my suits are both at the dry cleaners though, so I don’t really have a choice.” Matt retorts dryly. “I got caught up checking some case files and forgot to pick them up last night.” Matt had been too busy tracking down a few thugs that have been trying to coerce some of the Kitchen’s businesses into paying ‘protection’ money, but he certainly isn’t going to tell Foggy that.

Instead of replying, Foggy jumps up and heads for the kitchen. The sudden change in activity surprises Matt, but only waves away his questioning look, instead ducking into the kitchen. A second later he returns, grinning and holding out a jacket in one hand. “It’s no suit, but its fancy enough that you wont embarrass yourself”

“I can’t just take your jacket,” Matt starts, but Foggy doesn’t let him continue,  
  
”Why not? I’m not wearing it.”

“What will you wear on the way home? You’ll need it then.”

“I can go a few blocks without a jacket. You shouldn’t go a whole day without one, and I remember you said how draughty your office can be.”

Matt’s not sure how to respond to that, but he accepts with a mumbled thank you. He can’t help but feel kind of awkward as Foggy hands it over, but as he puts it on, he recognises the smell of Foggy permeating the fabric. It’s so soft and warm, like the memory of hugs when he was younger and Matt has gone from an average day to feeling vulnerable and exposed.

He catches a jump in Foggy’s heartbeat, and warmth across his cheeks as he does the buttons up. Does Foggy think he looks silly? The jacket is a bit big, but if it didn’t look okay, he thinks Foggy would say something, would he? Matt swallows nervously, pushing the thought away and turns his head self-consciously. He clears his throat with a cough, and searches for something to break the silence that has fallen over their table.

“So , you have holiday plans?” Matt chooses a safe topic, still feeling off-balance.

“Yeah, actually. We'll be closing the shop on Friday, I’m going to watch my niece’s nativity play, Nadeem and his wife are coming too, and our families are going ice-skating after,” Foggy answers enthusiastically. Matt sometimes wonders how this guy is for real.

“What’s part does your niece play?” he asks. Foggy laughs warmly.

“She’s a snowflake. They dance around a bit then join in on the choruses.” Foggy’s happiness is contagious “she thinks its the coolest thing since Frozen hit the theatres”.

Matt doesn’t even try to hide his smile as he lets himself relax again. When he leaves for work a few minutes later, the jacket is a warm reminder.

Matt breaks his routine and returns to the bakery again the following morning. He can say he is just returning the jacket, so he doesn’t come off as too enthusiastic.With a sigh, he runs his fingers through his hair nervously before entering.

He shouldn’t have worried, Foggy is as welcoming as ever. Matt even gets a last minute invite to the nativity play, and Foggy holds his hand as he teaches Matt how to ice-skate, afterwards.

**Author's Note:**

> This was more fun to write than I had expected! I'd also love to write even more awkward falling-in-love moments so who knows, maybe one day this fic will get a sequel. But for now, thanks for reading ^_^


End file.
